XOM API for Processing XML with Java

["Michael Kay" <mike AT saxonica.com>]

> 
>      Why not ask your users:
> 
> 1. How many of them use this method (today)?
> 2. How many of them used this method incorrectly when they 
> first tried XOM?
> 

Excuse me being a little rude, but that question seems rather naive.

(1) Do you seriously imagine that the developer of a library like XOM knows
who the users are or has any way of communicating with them? I'd be
surprised if as many as 1% of users are on this list.

(2) What kind of figure do you think would justify an incompatible change to
the interface? Let's say 90% for the sake of argument.

(2a) Do you seriously think Elliotte is prepared to make 10% of his users'
applications fail by introducing an incompatible change?

(2b) Do you really imagine that the figure could possibly be as high as
this? It's very easy to imagine when you make a programming mistake that
everyone else is making the same mistake. But it doesn't work that way. Of
the users who try to use this method, let's say 50% read the documentation,
and 50% guess. Of the 50% who guess, the chances are that half guess
correctly. So a much more reasonable estimate of the number of users making
this mistake would be 25%. Not nearly enough to justify an incompatible spec
change.

Regards,

Michael Kay
http://www.saxonica.com/
http://twitter.com/michaelhkay